PRACTICAL  HINTS 

TO 

BEE  -  KEEPERS. 


CHAS.  F.  MUTH. 


Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
18S1. 


PBICE:  lO  CENTS. 


QSsfp  X  ' 

Practical  Hints  to 

- 


Bee-Keepers. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Quite  a  number  of  books  have  made  their 
appearance  of  late  giving  all  the  details  not 
only  of  the  history  of  the  Bee,  its  habits,  the 
flowers  which  it  frequents,  but  also  decrib- 
ing  the  manipulations  necessary  to  secure  good 
results.  Among  the  foremost  of  late  works 
that  have  come  under  our  observation,  we  may 
mention  A.  I.  Root’s  A.  B.  C.,  and  Prof. 
Cook’s  Manual. 

Difference  of  locality,  however,  and  differ¬ 
ence  in  our  own  habits  of  manipulation  brings 
about  not  only  different  results,  but  are  often 
causes  of  gross  misunderstanding  and  mis¬ 
management.  It  will,  therefore,  not  be  amiss 
to  reproduce  a  few  practical  hints  from  our 
own  experience,  and  if  any  of  our  friends  will 
take  a  “hint”  occasionally,  our  object  is 
accomplished. 


Bee-keeping  is  a  knowledge  of  small  items, 
without  which  ordinary  results  only  are  ob¬ 
tained. 

The  most  important  item  when  starting  out 
in  Bee  Culture  is  the  selection  of  the  most  prac¬ 
tical  hive.  There  .shpylffjbe  no  complicated 


4 


manipulation  to  open  and  close  it,  and  every 
part  of  the  hive  should  be  of  very  easy  access. 
A  number  of  side-opening  hives  have  been  in-* 
vented,  but  in  spite  of  all  the  assertions  of  enf. 
thusiastic  friends  we  have  failed  to  see  theii 
practical  utility. 

The  top  bars  of  frames  should  be  at  equal 
distances  of  about  ^  to  -|  of  an  inch  apart.  Aq 
open  space  of  the  same  size  should  exist  be¬ 
tween  all  the  combs,  between  the  side  combs 
'and  the  sides  of  the  hive,  between  the  bottorq 
bars  of  frames  and  bottom  of  hive,  and  also  be¬ 
tween  the  top  bars  and  the  covers  or  super¬ 
boxes.  This  open  space  between  every  two 
objects  in  the  hive  was,  if  we  remember  right¬ 
ly,  one  of  the  principal  points  of  Mr.  Lang- 
stroth’s  patent. 

A  space  less  than  ^  inch  inside  of  a  bee-hive 
will  be  filled  with  bee-glue  or  propolis,  and  a 
space  wider  than  -|  inch  will  be  closed  with 
comb,  while  a  space  just  wide  enough  to  give 
the  bees  a  free  chance  to  move  between,  and  no 
more,  remains  undisturbed. 

Consequently  when  a  colony  of  bees  is  un¬ 
covered  and  the  place  and  extent  of  the 
cluster  at  once  seen,  the  queen  is  easily  found, 
and  not  a  bee  need  be  crushed.  Tight-top 
bar-frames  do  not  afford  the  same  facilities, 
especially  not  when  colonies  are  strong  and 
speedy  work  is  essential. 

To  show  the  reason  why  we  prefer 

THE  LANGSTROTH  HIVE, 

W e  will  quote  from  an  essay,  read  before  a 
bee-keepers’  meeting  in  Kentucky,  by  the 
writer: 


5 


OUR  BEE-HIVES, 

When  we  observe  the  manner  in  which  a 
strong  colony,  hived  in  a  common  box  hive,  and 
during  a  good  yield  of  honey,  builds  its  combs, 
we  find  that  the  hive  is  filled  almost  exclusively 
with  worker  combs,  which  are  apart  from  cen¬ 
ter  to  center  just  about  i-|  inches,  or  a  little  less, 
with  an  open  space  of  about  f  inch  between 
all  the  combs.  But  little  drone  comb  is  built, 
and  we  find  it  generally  to  be  the  last  combs  on 
the  sides  of  the  hive  and  the  lower  ends  of  the 
worker  combs.  Such  will  be  the  case  if  the 
colony  and  queen  are  in  a  normal  condition. 
A  colony  of  this  kind  will  be  prosperous  in  the 
future,  and  the  owner  will  say  of  it,  that  he  had 
good  luck  with  his  bees.  The  reverse  will  be 
the  case,  however,  if  the  queen  is  old,  or  shows 
signs  of  weakness,  as  drone  comb  will  then  be 
predominant  in  the  hive,  and  its  owner  will 
not  know  why  that  colony  gives  him  no  honey. 
He  may  say  the  next  spring  that  the  bee-moth 
got  among  his  bees. 

As  stated  above,  a  prosperous  colony  has 
worker  combs  built  if  to  i-|  inches  apart  from 
the  center  of  one  to  the  center  of  another  comb, 
with  a  space  between  the  combs  of  about 
f  of  an  inch.  If  we  give  them  room  enough, 
we  find  further  that,  when  their  combs  are 
built  12  or  14  inches  long,  that  brood  is  in  the 
lower  third  or  lower  half  and  honey  in  the 
upper  part.  If  the  bees  want  more  room  for 
brood,  they  build  to  the  lower  part  of  their 
combs,  while  for  honey  they  add  to  the  upper 
part.  In  this  manner  bees  proceed  if  they  have 
their  own  way,  when  they  can  follow  their 


6 


own  inclination.  Everyone  who  has  done  his 
share  of  transferring  bees  from  box  hives  has 
a  chance  of  judging  of  the  correctness  of  this 
statement. 

If  we  deprive  a  colony  of  the  room  above 
their  brood  to  deposit  their  stores,  they  will 
put  honey  alongside,  behind  and  in  front  of 
their  brood,  and  even  below  it.  During  a  good 
yield  of  honey  I  have  seen  comb  built  on  the 
outside  of  a  hive  and  filled  with  honey,  extend¬ 
ing  about  4  inches  from  the  hive  and  about  6 
inches  or  more  in  length. 

We  may  expect  the  best  results  only  when  we 
assist  nature  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  and  bees 
are  no  exception  to  this  rule. 

Wonders  are  claimed  by  some  men  for  their 
hives,  as  if  hives  were  doing  it  all.  We  may 
have  good  results  in  almost  any  bee  hive,  if  it 
is  only  composed  of  movable  combs  and  of 
easy  access,  as  we  may  remove,  one  fine 
morning,  the  very  obstacle  to  prosperity, 
which  would  take  the  bees,  perhaps,  all  season 
to  accomplish. 

It  is  therefore  very  essential  to  use  hives 
which  afford  the  greatest  comfort  to  our  bees 
and  to  us.  Bees  must  be  looked  over  occasion¬ 
ally,  as  there  may  be  something  to  clean  up  or 
cut  out,  the  combs  in  brood  chamber  may  have 
to  be  rearranged  to  promote  breeding.  Queen- 
cells  may  have  to  be  inserted,  or  a  young  queen 
introduced.  If  you  come  across  the  passage  of 
a  moth-worm  under  the  capping  of  your  brood 
combs,  and  pull  him  out,  you  have  done  some¬ 
thing  which  paid  you  well  for  the  trouble  of 
opening  your  hive.  If  a  party  tells  you  that 


7 


bees  get  hurt  when  opened,  you  may  depend  on 
it  that  he  is  a  poor  bee-keeper,  or  that  he,  at 
least,  does  not  understand  how  to  open  a  hive  of 
bees.  I  have  had  frequently  a  comb  in  my  hands 
with  the  queen  quietly  keeping  on  depositing 
her  eggs.  A  good  bee-keeper  should  always 
be  acquainted  with  the  state  of  every  one  of  his 
colonies,  that  he  maj^know  what  to  expect 
when  the  honey  season  commences. 

There  is,  in  my  estimation,  no  hive  which 
combines  so  many  advantages  and  has  less  ob¬ 
jectionable  points  than  the  Langstroth.  The 
only  objection  made  to  it  has  been  that  the 
frames  are  too  shallow  for  successful  wintering; 
an  objection  which  hundreds  of  us,  for  years 
past,  have  proved  to  be  none  at  all.  We  win¬ 
ter  bees  in  Langstroth  hives  as  successfully  as 
bees  are  wintered  at  all,  and  Langstroth’s  dis¬ 
ciples  are  counted  among  the  most  successful 
bee-keepers  in  the  country.  The  shallowness 
of  the  brood  frame  with  the  honey  chamber 
immediately  above  imitates  nature  closely,  and 
is  apt  to  give  us  the  best  results;  consequently 
we  must  keep  in  view  that  not  wintering  alone 
is  our  object,  but  a  full  honey  harvest.  Give 
me,  therefore,  a  shallow  frame,  just  deep 
enough  to  insure  successful  wintering. 

A  RATIONAL  INCREASE  OF  THE 
APIARY. 

An  essay,  also  by  the  writer,  read  before  the 
National  Bee-keepers’  Convention,  at  Cincin¬ 
nati,  which  we  herewith  reproduce,  if  carefully 
read,  will  acquaint  the  beginner  with  the  modus 
operandi  essential  to  success. 


8 


When  in  early  spring  the  days  begin  to  leng¬ 
then,  the  queen  of  every  hive  in  normal  con¬ 
dition  begins  to  deposit  her  first  eggs,  if  not 
induced  to  commence  sooner  by  warm  weather. 
At  first  she  lays  a  small  circle  of  eggs  on  each 
side  of  and  in  one  or  two  combs,  according  to 
the  strength  of  the  colony.  About  twenty-one 
days  after  the  first  eggs^are  laid,  the  first  young 
bees  make  their  appearance.  The  circles  of 
brood  become  larger  and  more  combs  are  made 
use  of. 

Bees  older  than  io  or  12  days  are  poor  nurses, 
and  do  all  housework  reluctantly.  They  are 
foragers.  Young  bees,  however,  are  nurses 
and  comb-builders,  and  do  all  housework  per¬ 
taining  to  the  well-fare  of  a  colony,  such  as 
cleaning  hives  and  combs,  preparing  cells  for 
the  reception  of  eggs,  honey  or  pollen,  supply¬ 
ing  the  larvaB  with  food,  etc.  The  brooding  is 
carried  on  with  more  energy  after  the  first  lot 
of  young  bees  are  hatched.  No  colony  is  in  a 
prosperous  condition  without  the  necessary, 
quantity  of  young  bees.  Here  many  beginners 
miss  it  when  making  artificial  swarms. 

In  this  part  of  the  country,  where  white  clo¬ 
ver  is  almost  our  only  resource  for  honey,  it  is 
of  the  greatest  importance  that  our  colonies 
should  be  strong  early.  Bees  require  heat  for 
brood-rearing  and  comb-building,  and  we  can 
promote  breeding  very  much  by  contracting  the 
space  in  their  hives  according  to  the  size  of  each 
colony  by  means  of  division  boards.  Give  them 
just  as  many  combs  as  the  bees  can  well  cover, 
and  the  result  will  be  sheets  full  of  brood  from 
top  to  bottom  and  from  end  to  end.  Without 


9 


this  precaution,  we  will  have  about  half  as  much 
brood  or  less,  in  as  many  combs.  Division 
boards  should  not  touch  the  bottom  by  from  ^ 
to  %  inch  so  as  to  give  the  bees  access  to  combs 
of  honey  placed  on  the  other  side.  An  empty 
comb  is  to  be  added  from  time  to  time  as  the 
growth  of  the  colony  requires.  The  proper  use 
of  division  boards  in  early  spring  is  such  a 
stimulus  to  breeding  up,  that  perhaps  none  of 
those  would  do  without  them  who  gave  it  once 
a  fair  trial. 

When  we  have  a  number  of  colonies  which 
are  all  treated  alike,  we  find,  in  spring,  always 
some  much  stronger  than  the  balance,  while 
other  colonies  are  rather  slow  in  increasing 
their  population.  If  their  queen  is  too  old,  or 
unprolific  for  some  reason,  she  should  be  re¬ 
placed  by  a  better  one.  But  it  happens,  some¬ 
times,  that  no  good  reason  can  be  assigned  for 
the  slow  progress  of  such  colonies  and  we  are 
often  surprised  at  their  energy  and  rapid  growth 
as  soon  as  a  few  combs  with  hatching  brood 
and  adhering  bees  from  a  strong  hive  are  added 
to  them. 

The  proverb  of  old,  “Make  your  swarms 
early/’  is,  therefore,  not  my  motto.  But  I 
strengthen  up  my  weak  colonies  with  combs 
of  hatching  brood  and  adhering  bees  from 
strong  colonies  in  order  to  be  ready  for  the 
harvest.  As  old  bees  only  are  foragers,  it  re¬ 
quires  a  large  number  of  them  at  the  time  when 
flowers  are  yielding  the  nectar,  to  insure  a  full 
crop  of  honey;  consequently,  we  should  secure 
our  honey-harvest  first,  and  then  make  our 
swarms. 


IO 


As  a  rule,  a  colony  will  not  swarm  when  the 
queen  has  plenty  of  room  to  deposit  eggs,  and 
the  bees  to  deposit  honey.  Without  one  or  both 
of  these  requirements,  a  swarm  may  issue  on 
any  fine  day.  A  queen,  however,  may  be 
crowded  in  the  course  of  a  day,  and  we  must 
prepare  for  an  occasional  exception  to  the  above 
rule. 

I  use  the  Langstroth  hive  with  io  frames  in 
the  brood  chamber,  giving  a  capacity  of  about 
1,320  square  inches  of  comb.  My  greatest  care 
in  spring  is  to  have  these  10  frames  filled  with 
brood  by  the  time  that  white  clover  commences 
to  bloom,  and  I  do  not  put  on  the  second  story 
or  honey  chamber  until  that  object  is  accom¬ 
plished.  A  comb  filled  with  too  much  honey 
in  proportion  to  the  brood  is  exchanged  for  an 
empty  one,  and  placed  in  the  upper  story  of 
some  hive,  or  used  to  build  up  a  weak  colony 
or  a  nucleus.  The  empty  comb  is  placed  next 
to  the  one  on  which  I  find  the  queen,  who  will 
not  be  long  in  finding  it.  When  10  Langstroth’s 
frames  are  filled  with  brood  and  the  honey- 
chamber  is  put  on  the  hive,  at  least  partly  filled 
with  empty  combs,  bees  will  follow  at  once 
their  natural  inclination  of  storing  above  their 
brood,  providing  the  flowers  are  secreting  honey 
and  weather  permits.  We  should  always  make 
it  a  point  of  having  at  least  one  full  comb  in 
the  honey-chamber  reaching  down  to  the  brood, 
serving  the  bees  as  a  ladder  to  run  upon.  This 
is  an  inducement  for  them  to  enter  more  readily. 

There  are  now  so  many  young  bees  hatching 
every  day  that  the  queen  is  kept  busy  refilling 
with  eggs  those  vacated  cells.  Under  these 


1 1 


circumstances  she  will  hardly  ever  enter  the 
honey-chamber.  If  honey  combs  are  emptied 
promptly  with  the  extractor,  or  the  necessary 
room  is  given  them  to  build  comb  honey  we 
shall  have  but  few  natural  swarms.  I  am  pro¬ 
ducing  principally  extracted  honey,  but  it  is 
due  to  the  above  management  that  I  have  had 
but  one  natural  swarm  during  the  last  15  years 
or  more. 

While  our  colonies  are  all  very  strong  and 
bees  busily  engaged  collecting  honey,  we  may 
quietly  prepare  for  the  increase  of  our  apiary* 

Worker-bees  are  females  imperfectly  devel¬ 
oped,  and  a  perfect  female  or  queen  can  be  de¬ 
veloped  from  a  worker-egg.  Accordingly,  the 
bees  select  their  cells,  make  them  larger  and 
longer,  and  supply  them  with  the  necessary 
food,  so-called  royal-jelly,  a  mixture  of  pollen 
and  honey.  In  due  time  the  cells  are  capped 
over. 

The  hive  containing  our  choicest  queen  may 
be  deprived  of  the  same.  The  restless  motion 
of  the  bees  about  their  hive  soon  afterwards 
tells  an  experienced  eye  that  they  are  missing 
their  queen.  In  less  than  24  hours,  however, 
their  loss  has  been  realized  and  the  bees  pro¬ 
ceed  quietly  to  repair  it  by  commencing  to  build 
a  number  of  queen-cells,  each  one  of  which  oc¬ 
cupies  about  as  much  room  as  4  or  5  worker 
cells,  wfith  a  downward  tendency  and  shaped 
much  like  a  peanut. 

About  16  days  after  the  eggs  are  laid,  young 
queens  emerge,  but  as  bees  will  often  form 
queen-cells  over  larvae  5  or  6  days  old,  we  may 
expect  the  first  queens  to  issue  on  the  10th  day 


12 


after  the  colony  was  deprived  of  its  queen. 
We  should,  therefore,  form  nucleus  colonies 
the  preceding  day.  We  take  from  every  strong 
colony  (according  to  its  strength)  i  or  2  frames 
with  hatching  brood  and  adhering  bees,  and 
replace  them  with  empty  combs  or  comb  foun¬ 
dation.  Two  combs  being  sufficient  for  a  nuc¬ 
leus  colony,  we  place  these  in  a  hive  between 
2  division  boards.  All  old  bees  having  gone 
back  to  their  old  hives,  within  an  hour  or 
two  afterward  —  we  proceed  to  cut  out  the 
queen  cells,  using  a  sharp,  thin-bladed  pen¬ 
knife,  leaving  ^  to  \  of  an  inch  of  comb  all 
around  them  so  as  not  to  injure  the  young 
queens  inside.  A  queen  cell  is  placed  between 
the  top-bars  of  the  frames  of  each  nucleus,  in 
such  a  position  that  one  may  see  on  raising  the 
cover  whether  the  ceil  has  hatched.  The  bees 
lose  no  time  in  fastening  and  taking  care  of  it. 
In  due  time  the  young  queen  emerges,  is  fer¬ 
tilized,  and  begins  her  avocation  as  mother  of 
the  colony.  She  lays  her  first  eggs  generally  8 
to  12  days  after  she  was  hatched. 

We  may  now  let  her  fill  a  few  combs  with  eggs, 
or  give  some  useful  work  to  the  colony,  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  strength  and  the  season,  such  as 
the  building  of  worker  combs  or  the  building 
out  of  comb  foundation,  etc. 

When  our  honey  season  is  over,  we  have 
kept  our  bees  from  swarming  by  the  above 
method  and  by  adding  occasionally  to  our  nu¬ 
cleus  a  frame  of  brood  from  our  strongest  colo¬ 
nies,  without,  however,  depriving  them  of 
their  force  of  honey-gatherers.  If  we  have 
manipulated  properly,  a  full  crop  of  honey 


x3 


(according  to  the  season)  has  been  secured,  and 
we  have  not  been  troubled  with  natural  swarms. 
We  may  now  strengthen  up  our  nuclei  with 
sheets  of  hatching  brood  and  adhering  bees 
from  our  old  colonies  which  have  an  abundance 
of  brood  and  stores. 

As  every  swarm  made,  is  more  or  less  at  the 
expense  of  the  honey  harvest,  we  are 
satisfied  with  about  one  swarm  from  every 
2  colonies.  We  make  less  if  we  can;  but 
if  swarms  are  the  object,  the  most  ambitious 
can  satisfy  themselves  by  the  above  method 
and  with  the  aid  of  comb  foundation. 

Another  good  method  of  starting  queen  cells 
is  as  follows:  Divide  the  colony  from  which 
you  desire  to  breed  by  means  of  a  division  board ; 
lay  the  entrance  blocks  in  the  middle,  letting 
the  bees  enter  on  each  side  of  the  portico,  and 
leaving  most  of  the  capped  cells  on  the  same 
side  with  the  queen.  All  communication  be¬ 
tween  the  two  sides  must  be  prevented.  The 
queenless  part  will  proceed  to  build  queen  cells 
at  once,  which  will  be  ready  to  cut  out  on  the 
ioth  day  and  be  placed  in  the  nuclei  as  described 
above.  At  least  on  the  ioth  day  we  should  be¬ 
gin,  as  the  young  queen  hatching  first,  will  un¬ 
ceremoniously  dispatch  every  rival  queen  in 
the  hive,  by  biting  open  the  cells  and  intro¬ 
ducing  her  sting,  thereby  killing  the  young 
queen  inside.  We  may  continue  rearing  queens 
in  the  same  hive  all  the  season  if  we  choose, 
and  from  the  same  queen,  by  changing  her  from 
one  side  to  the  other. 

The  Langstroth  hive  is  well  calculated  for 
rearing  in  it  3  queens  at  a  time,  by  means  of  2 


H 


division  boards,  letting  the  side  swarms  fly  out 
from  side  ventilators,  and  the  middle  swarm  in 
front — 3  nuclei  in  one  hive.  The  advantage  of 
this  method  is,  that  any  of  our  combs  answer 
for  the  nucleus,  and  after  our  3  queens  are  lay¬ 
ing  eggs,  we  may  make  use  of  2  of  them,  take 
out  the  division  boards,  and  let  the  remaining 
queen  take  charge  of  the  hive.  This  queen 
will  be  safe  among  the  bees,  being  of  the  same 
scent,  and  in  the  same  condition. 

WINTERING. 

Very  many  articles  have  appeared  from  time 
to  time  on  in  and  outdoor  wintering,  and  the 
present  severe  and  lasting  winter  will  not  fail 
to  renew  the  subject.  But  the  whole  art  of 
wintering  is  perhaps  enclosed  in  the  following 
short  sentence:  “Have  a  strong  colony  with 
plenty  of  honey,  and  the  air  in  your  hive  as 
pure  and  dry  as  you  require  it  for  your  own 
room.”  A  cold  draft  is  as  destructive  to  the 
health  of  bees  as  it  is  to  your  own.  But  when 
the  air  is  not  renewed  in  a  hive  of  bees,  and 
their  exhalations  condense  into  water  during 
cold  spells,  the  bee-hive  resembles  a  damp  cel¬ 
lar,  the  hone}T,  souring  in  those  combs  on  which 
the  bees  cluster,  gives  them  dysentery,  and,  if 
the  cold  lasts  perhaps  only  a  week  longer,  the 
fate  of  the  colony  is  sealed.  People  wonder  at 
what  killed  their  bees,  when  they  had  them 
covered  up  so  warm !  The  straw-hive  of  old, 
as  long  as  it  is  new,  is  known  to  be  the  best  of 
all  wintering  hives,  but  it  is  no  better  than  a 
wooden  box  as  soon  as  its  inside  is  coated  with 
Dee-glue.  Our  winter  covering  is  a  straw  mat, 


*5 


which  is  combining  the  wintering  quality  of 
the  straw  hive  with  the  advantages  of  the 
square  box  hive.  In  order  to  keep  the  mats 
from  being  glued  over,  a  piece  of  linen  cloth 
should  be  kept  next  to  the  bees.  A  small  col¬ 
ony  of  bees  should  have  its  wintering  place 
contracted  by  division-boards,  as  it  cannot  keep 
a  large  place  as  comfortable  as  a  strong  colony. 
A  most  dangerous  winter-covering  is  an 
oil  cloth  or  its  equivalent. 

We  should  never  forget  in  fall  to  cut  a  winter 
passage  through  the  middle  of  every  Comb  and 
let  the  Colony  occupy  no  more  than  the  brood 
chambre  during  winter* 

INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  is  to  place  the  cage 
containing  the  new  Queen  between  two  brood 
combs  and  leave  her  there  for  24  hours,  when 
the  cork  is  replaced  by  a  chunk  of  comb-honey 
which  the  bees  will  gnaw  out  and  thereby  lib¬ 
erate  the  queen.  Twenty-four  hours  confine¬ 
ment  is  better  than  a  longer  term,  because,  by 
this  time,  bees  have  not  yet  commenced  to  con¬ 
struct  queen-cells,  and  therefore  accept  a  queen 
more  readily.  It  is  a  matter  of  course  that, 
when  introducing,  we  must  be  sure  that  no 
second  queen  or  capped  queen-cell  is  in  the 
hive.  No  queen  should  be  introduced  in  any 
colony  which  was  without  brood  for  a  week  or 
more,  because  only  young  bees  take  care  of  the 
queen  and  her  progeny.  If  you  have  such  a 
colony,  take  at  least  two  combs  with  hatching 
brood  and  adhering  bees  from  a  strong  stand 
put  them  in  the  middle  of  the  swarm  in  ex- 


—  i6  — 

change  for  two  of  their  combs,  and  put  your 
cage  with  queen  between  them.  One  end  of 
the  introducing  cage  should  contain  a  sponge 
saturated  with  honey. 

A  cage  with  a  new  queen  may  be  placed  in 
a  colony  for  several  days  before  the  old  queen 
is  taken  out,  and  the  cork  on  the  lower  end  of 
the  queen-cage  replaced  by  a  chunk  of  honey 
at  the  time  when  the  old  queen  is  removed. 

A  good  manner  of  introducing  a  valuable 
queen,  also,  is  to  have  the  old  queen  caged  for 
a  day  or  less,  then  putting  the  new  queen  in 
the  same  cage  (after  the  old  queen  is  removed) 
and  placing  it  in  the  same  spot,  closed  with  a 
chunk  of  honey.  The  cage  retains  the  scent  of 
the  old  queen,  and  the  colony,  believing  their 
queen  to  be  in  the  same  place,  put  up  with  the 
stranger  by  the  time  the  honey  is  gnawed  out 
of  the  opening. 

When  we  open  a  colony  and  find  a  lump  of 
bees  as  large  as  a  walnut,  or  larger,  in  the  bot¬ 
tom  of  the  hive  or  on  the  side  of  a  comb,  the 
bees  are  bunching  or  balling  the  queen  for 
some  reason  or  other,  and  will  starve  her  to 
death  if  left  alone.  The  best  manner  to  save 
that  queen  is  to  take  up  the  ball  with  your 
hand  and  drop  it  in  a  tumbler  of  water  (luke¬ 
warm  if  the  temperature  be  cold),  dip  them 
under  with  your  finger,  the  ball  loosens,  and 
the  queen  escapes  without  being  stung.  Put 
her  in  a  cage  closed  with  a  good  chunk  of 
honey,  and  place  it  between  two  brood  combs. 
You  are  very  apt  to  see  her  the  next  day,  walk¬ 
ing  among  the  bees  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 


l7 


TRANSFERRING  BEES 
From  common  box  hives  to  frame  hives  is  a 
simple  arrangement.  Bees  mark  nothing  bet¬ 
ter  than  the  location  of  the  entrance  to  their 
hive.  They  make  a  bee-line  for  their  alighting 
board  or  entrance  for  a  distance  of  four  miles 
or  more,  and  are  apparently  in  great  trouble 
when  their  hive  is  turned  around  or  moved  to 
one  side  for  only  a  few  inches. 

A  few  whiffs  of  smoke  blown  under  or  in 
the  box-hive  a  few  minutes  before  it  is  re¬ 
moved  alarms  the  bees,  causes  them  to  fill 
themselves  with  honey,  and  makes  them  harm¬ 
less.  An  overdose  of  smoke  is  always  detri¬ 
mental. 

Now  set  the  old  hive  on  a  handy  spot 
and  put  in  its  place  the  lower  story  of  the 
new  frame  hive,  with  its  entrance  in  as  near 
the  same  position  as  the  old,  cover  the  new 
hive  with  a  board  or  cloth.  Pry  off  one 
side  of  the  box  hive  without  paying  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  bees;  cut  out  one  or  two  combs 
which  you  can  reach  handiest,  brushing  adher¬ 
ing  bees  into  the  front  of  the  new  hive  or  on 
its  entrance,  which  should  be  connected  with 
the  ground  by  a  board.  Bees  are  not  apt  to  go 
down  hill,  but  travel  up  hill  easily,  and  every 
healthy  bee  will  find  its  new  home  by  the  con¬ 
necting  board.  Place  the  combs  on  a  table 
covered  with  a  cloth,  and  laying  the  frames 
over  them,  fit  them  in,  using  the  inside  of  the 
frame  as  the  rule  to  cut  by.  You  can  fill  your 
frames  with  a  number  of  pieces  of  comb,  and 
hang  them  in  the  hive,  one  after  another,  as 
you  get  them  ready,  frames  with  brood  in  the 


i8 


middle  and  honey  on  the  sides.  Cotton  wrap¬ 
ping-twine,  taken  double,  is,  to  us,  handier  in 
fastening  pieces  of  comb  into  frames  than  any¬ 
thing  else.  Aptitude  of  the  operator,  and  some 
practice  is  necessary  to  acquire  proficiency  in 
transferring  as  well  as  in  every  other  business. 
After  all  the  other  combs  are  fastened  in  frames 
and  hung  in  the  new  hive,  the  bees  which  were  in 
the  fields  enter  their  new  home  as  well  as  those 
which  were  brushed  from  the  old  combs.  The 
bulk  of  the  Colony  has  clustered,  meanwhile, 
under  the  upper  board  of  the  old  hive  and  may 
be  taken  off  by  bunches  and  placed  at  the  en¬ 
trance  of  the  new  hive  or  shaken  in  front  of 
the  board  which  leads  to  the  entrance.  They 
proceed  at  once  to  repair  their  combs  and  if 
the  Colony  is  strong  enough  and  their  combs 
contain  enough  honey  or  the  flowers  yield  the 
necessary  sweets,  all  twines,  clasps  or  slats  may 
be  taken  off  in  less  than  12  or  24  hours.  The 
best  time  for  transferring  in  this  part  of  the 
country  is  the  month  of  April  and  beginning 
of  May  when  bees  find  sufficient  honey  from 
fruit  blossoms  to  repair  damages,  when  combs 
are  not  too  soft  for  handling  from  the  warm  tem¬ 
perature  ,  and  when  bees  are  not  inclined  to 
rob. 


FEEDING. 

The  best  way  of  feeding  bees,  under  all  cir¬ 
cumstances  is  to  give  them  a  full  comb  of  Honey 
or  as  many  as  they  may  need.  It  is  therefore 
the  beekeeper’s  best  policy  never  to  see  his 
hives  short  of  stores,  and  when  fall  comes  on, 
every  colony  should  have  a  full  supply.  Too 


x9 


much  honey  over  winter,  has  never  harmed  a 
colony,  and  when  spring  arrives  an  equalizing 
of  stores  comes  very  handy  when  some  colonies 
are  short.  However  when  our  supply  of  filled 
combs  is  at  an  end  and  bees  need  feeding,  they 
can  be  assisted  in  various  ways.  As  bees  never 
leave  their  cluster  during  cold  weather  and  as 
above  them  is  the  warmest  place,  we  find  a 
screwtop  fruit  Jar  with  perforated  cover  in¬ 
verted  over  a  hole  above  the  cluster  the  handi¬ 
est  arrangement.  For  stimulative  purposes  or 
for  feeding  during  warm  weather,  the  boss 
bee-feeder  or  an  inverted  fruit  Jar  arranged  on 
a  block  at  the  entrance  of  the  hive  so  that  bees 
from  the  inside  only  can  reach  it,  answers  the 
purpose. 

Pure  Honey  diluted  with  water  in  the  pro¬ 
portion  of  three  or  four  parts  of  Honey  to  one 
part  of  water  is  the  natural  and  best  food  for 
Bees.  In  order  to  guard  against  the  infection 
of  desease,add  -J  to^  oz  of  fhe  Foul-Brood  medi¬ 
cine,  as  given  below,  to  every  quart  of  food. 
It  would  be  wise  to  add  it  to  all  Beefood  as  a 
sanitary  measure.  The  next  best  food  is  syrup 
made  of  cane  Sugar  (Coffee  A  is  perhaps  best) 
about  a  pint  of  wafer  or  a  little  more,  to  a  pound 
of  sugar,  boiled  up,  is  a  fair  proportion  to 
make  it  the  consistency  of  thin  honey. 

The  introduction  of  Glucose  or  Grape  sugar 
is  just  as  unfortunate  for  feeding  bees  as  it  is 
to  consumers  of  Honey,  Maple  Syrup,  Molasses 
and  Sugar  of  any  kind,  all  kinds  of  candies  etc. 
Our  children  don’t  like  candy  any  more,  and 
like  consumers  of  adulterated  Honey,  don’t 
know  the  reason  why.  Grape  sugar  appears 


20 


to  be  a  misfortune  to  all,  but  its  manufacturers 
and  dealers  and  to  adulterators.  It  is  a  known 
fact  that  its  nutriment  is  only  30  to  35  per  cent 
of  that  of  Canesugar,  but  it  has  a  body  and 
having  no  flavor,  partakes  readily  of  the  flavor 
of  any  admixture.  Grape  Sugar  is  a  very 
dangerous  adulterant  and  bound  to  damage 
the  interest  of  Bee-keepers.  It  is  cheap  per 
pound,  but  as  3  lbs.  of  it  will  only  do,  theoreti¬ 
cally,  as  much  good  as  one  pound  of  Canesugar, 
it  is  expensive  after  all.  It  is  designed  to  de¬ 
ceive.  Other  qualities  injurious  to  the  health 
of  bees  should  condemn  it  as  food. 

A  friend  of  the  writer  states  having  read  in 
his  medical  periodical  of  recent  date  that  one  of 
the  causes  of  that  apparently  incurable  disease 
Bright’s  disease  of  the  Kidneys  is  said  to  be 
Grape  Sugar. 

The  best  stimulative  Food  in  spring  is,  per¬ 
haps,  Sugar  Syrup  thickened  up  with  Pea  flour. 
Pea  flour  is  said  to  be  first  cousin  to  natural 
Pollen  and  a  lump  of  the  mixture  placed  on 
top  of  the  frames  is  said  to  perform  won¬ 
ders  in  the  way  of  stimulating  to  breed. 

FOUL  BROOD  AND  ITS  CURE 

as  read  by  the  writer  before  the  National  Bee- 
Keeper’s  convention  at  Cincinnati  is  pertinent 
and  should  be  read  by  every  beekeeper. 

It  is  gratifying  to  observe  the  growing  atten¬ 
tion  paid  by  bee-keepers  in  this  country  to  the 
dangers  of  the  spread  of  foul  brood.  Utah  has  a 
bee  inspector  in  every  county,  a  State  officer, 
drawing  pay  from  the  State.  It  would  be  a 
move  in  the  right  direction  if  other  States  would 


21 


imitate  our  Mormon  brethren  in  this  especial 
particular,  since  bee-keeping  has  become  so 
important  a  factor  in  the  commonwealth  of  the 
country. 

It  is  very  essential  for  every  bee-keeper  to 
know  his  position  in  regard  to  foul  brood, 
should  it  make  its  appearance  in  his  apiary,  as 
the  pleasures  and  profits  would  be  destroyed  it 
this  pest  is  permitted  to  become  predominant 
in  his  neighborhood.  A  country  like  ours, 
where  an  abundance  of  forest  trees  afford 
homes  for  absconding  swarms,  is  very  favor¬ 
able  for  the  spreading  of  the  disease.  There 
would  be  no  end  to  foul  brood  in  a  neighbor¬ 
hood  after  a  number  of  bee-trees  become  in¬ 
fested,  as  every  bee  running  over  those  devas¬ 
tated  combs  for  years  afterward,  is  liable  to  take 
home  to  its  own  hive  the  germs  of  the  disease. 
Let  us,  therefore,  be  on  our  guard. 

Foul  brood  is  a  disease,  imported,  and  spreads 
by  contagious  spores.  It  is  of  vegetable  growth 
—a  fungus.  Little  specks  of  it,  hardly  discern¬ 
ible  with  the  naked  eye,  are  carried  along  on 
the  legs  of  the  bees  running  over  infected  combs. 
Wherever  one  of  these  spores  drops  into  a  cell 
containing  larva,  the  larva  dies,  changing  soon 
into  a  brownish  putrid  mass,  settling  into  the 
lower  corner  of  the  cell,  and  foul  brood  begins 
its  growth.  It  happens  that  larvae  are  affected 
and  die  just  before  the  cells  are  capped,  or 
while  the  bees  are  performing  their  usual  labor, 
capping,  unconscious  of  the  trouble  below, 
We  find  those  cells,  a  few  weeks  afterwards, 
perforated  at  or  near  the  centre,  and  easily  recog¬ 
nize  them  as  diseased.  Larvae  in  uncapped  cells, 


22 


killed  by  this  disease,  settle  into  the  lower  cor¬ 
ner  as  a  ropish  substance,  and  dry  up  in  the 
course  of  time  in  a  hard,  coffee-colored  mass. 
They  are  easily  recognized. 

Bees  continually  running  over  these  cells  will 
soon  carry  the  micrococcus  to  a  large  number 
of  others  containing  larvae,  uutil  every  comb  is 
affected.  The  putrid  stench  becomes  so  strong 
in  the  hive  that  often  the  bees  swarm  out  in 
despair,  unable,  however,  to  rid  themselves 
of  the  curse  of  foul  brood  adhering  to 
their  bodies.  The  disease  does  not  affect  old 
bees,  but,  killing  off  the  young,  soon  decimates 
a  colony. 

Micrococcus  dropped  into  empty  cells,  or 
cells  containing  honey  or  pollen,  may  remain 
dormant  for  years.  As  soon,  however,  as  the 
queen  deposits  eggs  in  such  cells,  and  they  de¬ 
velop  into  larvae,  the  trouble  commences.  I 
have  had  a  case  where  the  spores  from  an  in¬ 
fected  hive  were  hidden  among  the  fissures  of 
a  plank  exposed  to  the  weather  for  more  than 
12  months,  and  were  ready  to  do  the  mischief 
the  following  season  when  I  put  a  hive  on  that 
plank.  The  bees  ran  over  it  and  dragged  in 
with  them  the  germ  of  foul  brood. 

Dr.  Schoen.feld  has  taught  us  the  true  nature 
of  foul  brood,  and  that  its  growth  is  destroyed 
by  salicylic  acid,  while  Mr.  Emil  Hilbert  found 
the  proper  proportion  and  application  whereby 
foul  brood  is  destined  without  injury  to  animal 
life.  Mr.  Hilbert  applied  his  medicine  by 
means  of  an  atomizer,  subjecting  every  comb, 
cell  and  bee  to  a  spray  of  the  same.  Every  in¬ 
fected  cell  had  to  be  disinfected,  as  also  every 


23 


comb  and  frame,  and  the  inside  of  the  hive  and 
adjoining  surroundings.  Several  thorough  treat¬ 
ments  of  this  kind  will  cure  a  colony  of  foul 
brood.  I  have  cured  quite  a  number  of  them 
in  this  manner,  and  speak  from  experience.  My 
modus  operandi  has  been  given  in  an  essay  to 
the  meeting  of  our  Association  in  Chicago, 
which  makes  a  repetition  here  unnecessary. 
See  page  502  November  No.  of  American  Bee 
Journal,  1879. 

The  only  objection  I  now  have  to  the  above 
method,  is  that  bees  from  other  hives,  visit  the 
combs  under  treatment  in  your  hands,  or  the 
open  hive  before  you,  and  take  the  spores  home 
with  them,  and  by  the  time  one  colony  is  cured 
we  may  find  a  number  of  others  affected.  So 
it  was  with  me  in  spite  of  the  greatest  care. 
Mr.  Hilbert  treats  his  diseased  colonies  in  a 
closed  room,  so  that  no  bees  from  other  hives 
have  access  during  the  time  of  treatment. 

I  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the 
cheapest  and  safest  remedy  to  destroy  an  in¬ 
fected  colony,  with  all  the  brood,  combs  and 
every  bee  belonging  to  it.  However,  I  learned 
a  better  method  this  summer.  A  neighbor 
offered  me,  in  March,  two  empty  hives  and 
combs,  the  bees  from  which  had  died  during 
winter  and  were  robbed  by  other  bees,  as  he 
stated.  I  was  convinced  at  first  sight,  that  those 
bees  had  died  of  foul  brood,  and  sent  a  warning, 
to  look  out,  to  my  neighboring  bee-keepers,  one 
of  whom  discovered  one  of  his  hives  affected 
afterwards  and  burned  it  up.  In  April  I  dis¬ 
covered  two  colonies  in  my  apiary  affected  with 
the  disease.  I  brimstoned  the  bees  the  same 


24 


evening,  burned  up  the  combs  and  frames,  and 
disinfected  the  hives.  Another  colony  showed 
it  in  May.  Feeling  sorry  to  kill  a  beautiful 
queen,  besides  a  very  strong  colony  of  pure 
Italians,  I  brushed  them  on  io  frames  of  comb 
foundation,  into  a  clean  hive,  and  placed  over 
them  a  jar  with  food,  as  I  shall  describe  here¬ 
after.  The  old  combs  and  frames  were  burned 
up,  and  the  hive  disinfected,  This  feeding  was 
kept  up  until  all  the  sheets  of  comb  foundation 
were  built  out  nicely  and  filled  with  brood  and 
honey.  It  was  a  beautiful  colony  of  bees  about 
4  weeks  afterwards,  full  of  healthy  brood,  and 
with  combs  as  regular  as  can  only  be  made  by 
the  aid  of  comb  foundation.  Four  more  colo¬ 
nies  were  discovered  infected,  one  after  another. 
All  went  through  the  same  process,  and  every 
one  is  a  healthy  colony  at  present.  I  was  so 
convinced  of  the  completeness  of  this  cure,  that 
I  introduced  into  one  of  these  colonies  my  first 
Cyprian  queen  sent  me  by  friend  Dadant. 

All  are  doing  finely  now,  and  no  more  foul 
brood.  Should,  however,  another  one  of  my 
colonies  show  signs  of  the  disease,  it  would 
not  be  because  it  had  caught  it  from  its  neighbor 
which  I  had'attempted  to  cure,  but  because  the 
germ  of  foul  brood  was  hidden  somewhere  in 
the  hive,  and  of  late  had  come  in  contact  with 
a  larva. 

The  formula  of  the  mixture  is  as  follows: 

1 6  gr.  salicylic  acid, 

1 6  gr  soda  borax, 
i  oz.  water. 

I  keep  on  hand  a  bottle  of  this  mixture,  so  as 
to  be  always  ready  for  an  emergency;  also  a 


25 


druggist’s  ounce  glass,  so  that  I  may  know 
what  I  am  doing.  My  food  was  honey,  with 
about  25  per  cent  water  added.  But  we  may 
feed  honey  or  sugar  syrup,  adding  to  every 
quart  of  food  an  ounce  of  the  above  mixture. 
Bees  being  without  comb  and  brood,  partake 
of  it  readily,  and  by  the  time  their  comb  foun¬ 
dation  is  built  out,  you  will  find  your  colony  in 
a  healthy  and  prosperous  condition. 

Thus  you  see  foul  brood  can  be  rooted  out 
completely,  and  without  an  extra  amount  of 
trouble,  provided  you  are  sufficiently  impressed 
with  its  dangerous,  insidious  character  and  are 
prepared  to  meet  it  promptly  on  its  first  ap¬ 
pearance. 

When  an  atomizer  is  used  on  combs  and 
larvae,  the  medicine  should  be  only  half  as 
strong  as  given  in  the  formula. 

ARTIFICIAL  COMB-FOUNDATIONS 

Are  thin  sheets  of  pure  beeswax  with  correct 
impressions,  of  the  base  of  the  cells  of  Honey 
comb,  on  each  side.  These  impressions  or 
foundations  are  .softened  up  by  the  bees  and 
built  out  into  cells  during  warm  weather  when 
bees  are  fed  or  flowers  yield  honey.  Their 
perfect  regularity  makes  them,  in  some  re¬ 
spects,  preferable  to  natural  combs,  although 
to  careless  queenraisers,  it  may  cause  a  scarcity 
of  pure  drones  in  their  apiaries  and  a  consequent 
disappointment  in  the  production  of  pure 
queens. 

Comb-foundations  are  fastened  to  the  top 
bars  of  brood  frames  in  various  ways.  The 
handiest  way  for  us  is  to  place  a  frame  over  a 


26 


board  adjusted  to  fit  inside  of  it  and  to  reach 
barely  half  way  up  the  frame.  On  this  board 
(adjusting  board)  we  place  the  sheet  of  foun¬ 
dation,  which  is  cut  to  fill  out  the  frame  to 
within  about  £  inch  along  the  bottom  bar  and 
within  inch  from  the  side  bars.  It  is  fastened 
to  the  top  bar  of  the  frame  with  melted  wax, 
which  is  applied  to  both  sides  by  means  of  a 
small  painting  brush.  To  avoid  the  heat  of 
the  stove  in  hot  summer,  we  melt  the  wax  in  a 
small  tin  pan  placed  on  a  square  tin-arrange¬ 
ment,  so  called  Priming  furnace,  with  a  burn¬ 
ing  candle  inside  of  it.  During  the  hot  season, 
when  wax  is  pliable,  a  pressing  on  of  foun¬ 
dations  against  the  beveled  top  bar  of  frame 
with  the  thumbs  and  smoothing  it  over  with 
the  blade  of  a  knife  affords  often  sufficient 
fastening. 

If  very  thin  bottomed  foundations  are  not 
used,  only  starters  of  about  ^  inch  width  should 
be  fastened  under  top  bars  of  super-boxes  or 
honey  frames,  thus  showing  the  bees  which 
way  to  build. 

With  a  proper  use  of  comb-foundations,  we 
never  need  be  short  of  combs  during  the  honey 
season,  and  great  gains  in  the  increase  of  the 
product  may  be  consequently  realized.  Bees 
build  comb  only  during  a  good  yield  of  honey 
when  they  eat  large  quantities  of  it,  and  then 
small  scales  of  wax  apparently  sweat  out  from 
between  the  segments  of  their  body.*  The 
bees  take  these  scales  wdth  their  mandibles 
from  each  other,  and  build  them  into  brood- 
or  honey-combs,  as  they  may  require. 

By  supplying  the  bees  with  ready  made 


27 


comb  or  comb-foundations,  we  save  them; 
therefore,  not  only  a  great  amount  of  time  and 
labor,  but  also  a  large  quantity  of  honey.  They 
are  said  to  consume  20  to  30  pounds  of  honey 
in  order  to  manufacture  one  pound  of  comb. 

If  we  give  to  a  late  swarm  a  full  set  of 
combs,  they  are  apt  to  rear  an  abundance  of 
young,  bring  in  enough  of  winter-stores  and 
become  a  prosperous  colony  the  following 
season,  when  otherwise,  they  would  not  have 
lived  over  winter. 

Comb-foundations  should  be  used  only  dur¬ 
ing  a  good  flow  of  honey,  because  bees  would 
no  more  finish  them,  when  the  season  is  past, 
than  they  would  their  own  natural  combs.  If 
however  we  supply  them  with  the  necessary 
food,  foundations  may  be  built  out  until  the 
end  of  the  warm  season. 

HONEY  PRODUCTION. 

Bees  store  their  honey  above  their  brood  by 
natural  inclination,  as  it  is  within  their  easiest 
reach  in  winter,  because  their  own  natural 
heat  rises  and  warms  the  place  for  them.  As 
they  consume  their  stores  about  their  cluster, 
they  move  gradually  upward.  Hence,  where 
the  brood  ends  at  about  the  time  of  the  honey 
season,  there  should  be  our  honey  chamber. 

When  comb-honey  is  our  object,  our  sec¬ 
tional  boxes  should  be  placed  immediately 
above  the  brood  chamber  without  so  much  as 
a  honey  board  between  them,  but. not  until 
the  brood  chamber  is  well  filled  with  bees, 
brood  and  honey.  Every  frame  should  be 
provided  with  a  guide  comb  and  a  full  comb 


in  the  middle  frame  of  every  sectional  box. 
Besides  a  good  yield  of  honey,  this  is  all  that  is 
necessary  to  have  the  bees  enter  the  honey 
chamber  readily. 

EXTRACTED  HONEY 

Is  getting  into  better  demand  every  year  and 
diminishes  the  consumption  of  combhoney  in 
the  same  degree  as  the  public  becomes  more 
convinced  of  its  merits.  The  granulation  of 
extracted  honey  has  been  a  serious  stumbling 
block  to  dealers  and  was  looked  upon  with 
suspicion.  But  as  the  majority  of  consumers 
are  already  convinced  that  a  solid  granulation 
of  extracted  honey  is  the  best  proof  of  its 
purity,  the  demand  for  it  exceeds  now  that  of 
combhoney,  and  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  when 
it  will  also  bring  a  better  price,  which  it  de¬ 
serves. 

Extracted  honey,  in  general,  is  produced  in 
frames  of  the  same  size  as  the  brood  frames. 
After  the  honey  season  has  commenced  and 
the  lower  story  is  filled  with  brood  and  bees, 
we  place  a  box  containing  10  frames  of  the 
same  size  as  the  brood  frames,  on  the  lower 
story,  and  whenever  they  are  about  filled  we 
extract  those  combs,  returning  them  to  the  bees 
to  fill  them  up  again  and  repeat  the  process  as 
often  as  the  season  permits.  There  is  no  good 
reason  for  having  the  combs  capped  over  before 
they  are  extracted  as  the  honey  “ripens’’  in  an 
open  vessel  better  than  in  a  bee  hive.  To  con¬ 
vince  yourself,  spill  some  of  the  watery ahoney  of 
newly  filled  combs  on  a  board  and  put  your 
finger  to  it  about  an  hour  afterward,  when  you 


29 


will  find  it  thick  and  sticky  like  syrup.  All 
extracted  honey,  whether  it  has  been  capped 
over  or  not,  should  stand  in  open  vessels  for  at 
least  a  week  or  more,  for  evaporation  and, 
perhaps  to  give  vent  to  its  animal  heat.  If  in 
a  warm  place  and  exposed  to  the  sun,  a  few 
days  maybe  sufficient.  Honey  being  of  heavy 
body  will  settle  and  all  particles  of  wax  and 
other  impurities  will  rise  to  the  surface,  which 
should  be  thoroughly  skimmed  off  before  the 
honey  is  barreled  or  bottled.  No  strainer  is 
necessary  as  an  abundance  of  small  specks  is  not 
retained  by  it.  Honey,  so  treated,  has  well 
ripened  and  it  will  form  a  solid  granulation  at 
the  approach  of  cold  weather  and  contract 
when  granulating.  It  will  keep  forever  in  a 
dry  place.  But  honey  which  has  been  bottled 
or  barreled  before  time  was  given  it  for  evap¬ 
oration,  will  expand  when  it  granulates,  no 
matter  how  long  the  cells  had  been  capped, 
its  granulation  will  be  loose  and  slushy  and  its 
taste  becomes  sour. 

UNCAPPING  KNIVES 


Uncapping  Knives  should  be  thin  bladed, 
of  good  steel  and  ground  sharp  before  oper¬ 
ations  are  commenced.  Drawing  the  clean 
blade  over  a  piece  of  fat  bacon  keeps  the 
gummy  part  of  the  comb  from  sticking  to  the 
knife  when  uncapping. 


—  3°  — 

MUTH’S  HONEY  EXTRACTOR 


Is  second  to  none  in  regard  to  material,  work¬ 
manship,  simplicity,  durability  and  practical 
arrangement.  Among  its  advantages  over 
other  extractors  are  the  slanting  sides  of  its 
combbasket.  Cells  having  a  downward  ten¬ 
dency  empty  readier  than  when  in  a  horizontal 
position  because  gravity  is  aiding  centrifugal 
force  and  every  practical  test  will  prove  the 
folly  of  the  assertion  made  by  competitors  that 
the  combs  do  not  empty  alike  in  top  and 
bottom  of  frames.  We  are  convinced  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time,  and  a  short  time 
indeed,  when  comb-baskets  will  be  made  with 
slanting  sides  only,  as  it  does  not  take  long  in 
our  country  to  take  hold  of  an  improvement. 


31 


Another  advantage  of  the  slanting  sides  is  that 
no  combs  need  to  be  fastened  and  that  pieces 
of  comb  of  promiscuous  shape  and  size  lean 
against  the  wiregauze  with  the  same  safety  and 
are  emptied  of  their  contents  as  easily  as  combs 
within  frames.  Neither  will  honey,  in  the 
shape  of  a  fine  spray,  fly  over  the  brim  of  the 
can;  with  perpendicular  sides,  this  is  a  serious 
inconvenience. 

The  rod  of  the  comb-basket  running  in  a 
socket  in  the  bottom  of  the  Extractor  is  a  de¬ 
cided  advantage  over  all  Extractors  having  the 
socket  above  the  reach  of  the  Honey,  because 
Honey  is  the  most  desirable  lubricator  in  a 
Honey-Extractor  and  lubrication  is  necessary 
whenever  there  is  friction.  Every  practical 
bee-keeper  knows  that  the  rod  of  the  comb- 
basket  is  moist  or  wet  with  Honey  whenever  he 
is  extracting, hence  the  socket  below  cannot  keep 
dry  no  matter  how  high  above  the  Honey. 
And  thirdly  we  challenge  any  practical  bee¬ 
keeper  to  tell  us  that  he  ever  saw  a  discolo¬ 
ration  of  Honey  caused  by  the  iron  rod  running 
in  the  iron  socket,  even  if  rod  and  socket  were 
not  galvanized,  when  only  ordinary  cleanliness 
is  exercised,  in  fact  even  if  Honey  is  left  in  the 
Extractor  during  the  whole  season. 

Our  honey-extractor  need  not  be  fastened 
down  when  operated.  To  place  it  on  a  level 
stand  and  put  in  two  combs  of  about  the  same 
weight,  is  the  only  precaution  necessary. 
Without  a  balance  no  steady  motion  is  pos¬ 
sible  in  any  machine. 

Having  used  for  years,  a  four-frame-Ex- 
tractor  we  have  been  of  the  opinion  that  only 


32 


such  a  one  would  answer  for  speedy  work. 
However,  since  we  have  used  a  two-frame-Ex- 
tractor  along  with  a  four-frame  one  also  for 
several  years,  we  are  convinced  of  the  fact  that 
but  little  time  if  any  is  gained  and  that,  in 
the  whole  a  two-frame-Extractor  is  preferable 
An  additional  receiver  is  more  practical.  We 
are  aware  that  we  differ  with  a  few  bee¬ 
keepers  of  good  practical  experience  in  this 
respect  but — they  are  apt  to  agree  again  writh 
us,  (as  we  did  once  with  them)  when  they  get 
hold  of  a  good  two-frame-Extractor  as  we 
make  it.  It  requires  almost  no  more  time  to 
extract  the  Honey  than  to  place  the  frames 
in  the  Extractor  and  it  is  here  where  the  time 
is  made  up. 

The  above  statement  is  made  merely  to  ex¬ 
press  our  opinion  in  regard  to  Extractors.  We 
furnish  a  four-frame-Extractor  at  an  additional 
cost  of  $2.00  over  and  above  the  price  of  a 
two-fiamed  one. 

Two  bee-keepers  of  prominence  in  our  fra¬ 
ternity  were  infringing  on  my  rights  in  an 
undue  manner  and  in  order  to  protect  myself, 
I  applied  for  a  patent  on  my  comb-basket  and 
obtained  it. 


Foul  Brood,  and  a  New  Cure. 

By  CHAS.  F.  MUTH, 


The  number  of  letters  I  receive  on  foul  brood  from 
almost  every  part  of  the  country  convinces  me  that 
\his  subject  is  of  more  importance  than  many  of  us 
think.  It  shows  that  this  virulent  disease  does  not 
only  exist  but  that  it  has  spread  rapidly.  I  have  some 
experience  in  the  matter,  and  foul  brood  may  not  yet 
be  a  thing  of  the  past  with  me,  as  a  friend  told  me,  only 
a  few  days  ago,  that  his  five  hives  on  his  roof  in  our 
city  were  foul  with  the  disease.  I  have  seen  them 
since,  and  expect  to  brimstone  them  for  him  on  some 
evening,  and  have  combs  and  hives  burnt  up  before 
morning,  so  that  no  visiting  bees  next  day  will  have  a 
chance  of  taking  spores  home  with  them.  His  stand 
will  be  disinfected  with  the  atomizer  before  I  shall 
quit. 

There  is  no  use  for  any  one  to  become  alarmed  upon 
finding  dead  brood  in  his  hives,  which  is  very  often 
caused  during  cold  nights  in  fall  and  spring,  when 
bees  contract  their  cluster  and  leave  larvae  exposed. 
The  color  of  the  larvae  is  white  with  a  dark  shade  oc¬ 
casionally,  until  it  is  removed  by  the  bees,  while  from 
foul  brood  they  look  brownish  almost  as  soon  as  dead, 
and  the  color  deepens  until  a  dark  brown  mass  lodges 
(On  the  lower  side  of  the  cells.  When  the  attempt  is 
made  to  remove  it  with  a  pin  or  a  stick,  it  feels  ropy, 
sticky,  and  cannot  entirely  be  removed.  The  stench, 
of  which  so  much  has  been  said  by  different  parties, 
does  not  differ  any  from  that  of  any  other  decaying 
brood.  But  it  becomes  stronger  as  the  bulk  of  dead 
animal  matter  accumulates.  Invisible  spores  are 
thrown  out  from  this  brown  larvae  and  carried  along 


2 

on  the  bodies  of  the  bees,  drones  and  queens  running 
over  them.  A  queen  from  a  foul-brood  colony  is  just 
as  liable  to  spread  the  disease  as  any  other  member 
of  that  family.  It  would  be  bad  logic  to  consider  it 
otherwise,  and  I  had  ample  proof  of  it  in  several  in¬ 
stances  when  I  did  not  wish  to  give  up  a  fine  queen 
from  a  diseased  colony,  introduced  her  into  a  healthy 
one,  and  created  a  new  trouble.  She  is  just  as  liable 
to  transmit  the  disease  as  are  our  fingers  or  the  knife 
we  use  for  loosening  the  frames.  The  brown  larva 
on  the  lower  side  of  the  cell  dries  up,  finally,  into  a 
solid  mummy,  when  it  will  never  be  discovered,  un¬ 
less  by  an  experienced  eye,  and  then  not  without  an 
effort. 

Salicylic  acid  destroys  all  spores  of  foul  brood 
it  comes  in  contact  with,  but  does  not  penetrate  the 
mummy,  which  resembles  ground  coffee  when  scraped 
out  of  the  cell.  This  mummy  may  rest  liarmlessly 
for  years  when  honey  or  pollen  is  packed  on  top  of  it. 
But,  when  an  egg  is  laid  in  that  cell  again,  the  larva 
softens  up  the  mummy,  dies,  and  foul  brood  takes  a 
new  start.  The  colony  would  have  been  cured  if  that 
mummy  had  not  been  overlooked. 

Here  is  where  the  danger  lies  and  wherefrom  the 
many  disappointments  and  failures  emanate.  It  shows 
the  danger  of  using  again  brood  combs  from  diseased 
colonies,  even  if  they  have  been  disinfected. 

There  is  a  milder  type  of  foul  brood  which,  in  ap¬ 
pearance,  is  very  much  like  the  malignant  type.  It 
is  contagious,  also,  but  not  so  stubborn  to  overcome, " 
and  caused  by  surrounding  circumstances. 

In  the  spring  of  ’83  I  had  purchased  a  lot  of  bees 
from  the  South.  On  their  arrival  here  I  found  the 
hives  full  of  dead  brood  in  capped  and  uncapped  cells. 
The  tops  of  the  hives  were  closed  with  wire-gauze. 
They  had  been  strong  colonies,  but  too  many  old  bees 


3 


had  been  left  with  them  for  the  long  journey,  con¬ 
trary  to  my  advice  to  the  shipper  to  let  all  the  old 
bees  fly  off  before  closing  the  hives. 

It  is  always  the  old  bees  that  create  trouble  in 


alarmed,  and  create  such  an  amount  of  heat  that  the 
brood,  in  all  stages,  may  smother  in  spite  of  all  ven¬ 
tilation.  This  had  happened  with  the  shipment  of 
bees  referred  to.  I  cleaned  out  all  combs  and  hives 
but  three,  which  seemed  to  be  in  a  less  damaged  con¬ 
dition.  These  three  colonies  became  strong,  and 
filled  quite  a  number  of  combs  with  honey,  all  of 
which  I  extracted  and  rendered  the  combs  into  wax, 
because  the  dead  brood  in  the  hives  was  slowly  but 
surely  increasing.  Uncapping  some  sheets,  I  found 
most  of  the  brood  dead ;  but  instead  of  finding  a 
brown,  dry  matter  under  the  cappings,  a  blackish, 
dirty  liquid  ran  out,  and  very  few^  cells  had  perfor¬ 
ations.  It  was  plain  that  I  was  dealing  with  a  differ¬ 
ent  kind  of  foul  brood  from  what  I  had  been  used  to. 
I  put  one  colony  after  another  into  a  clean  hive  and 
gave  them  new  combs,  rendered  all  the  old  combs  in¬ 
to  wax,  disinfected  the  old  hives,  and  my  three  colon¬ 
ies  are  still  prosperous.  This,  very  likely,  was  that 
same  kind  of  foul  brood  which  my  good  friend  D.  A. 
f  Jones  can  cure  so  readily  by  the  starving  process. 

It  is  not  now  my  object  to  go  again  over  the  old 
ground  describing  all  the  particulars  of  the  malignant 
type  of  foul  brood,  nor  the  different  methods  by  which 
*a  cure  is  said  to  have  been  effected  by  different  par¬ 
ties.  Enough  of  it  can  be  found  in  the  back  numbers 
of  our  bee  journals  and  in  every  bee  book  of  late. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  genuine  foul  brood,  or  the 
malignant  type  of  the  disease,  spreads  by  spores,  and 
that  salicylic  acid  destroys  those  spores  whenever 
brought  in  contact  therewith.  Consequently  salicylic 


4 


• 

acid  will  rid  a  colony  of  bees  of  foul  brood  if  properly 
applied.  But  this  proper  application  is  not  an  easy 
job.  It  requires  energy,  skill  and  experience — virtues 
not  possessed  by  everybody ;  and  if  half  a  dozen  or 
more  men  fail  to  effect  a  cure,  their  failure  should  be 
no  criterion.  I  have  succeeded  in  a  large  number  of 
cases  and  dare  say  not  many  of  my  friends  would 
subject  themselves  to  the  same  amount  of  labor  and 
expense  I  did,  to  accomplish  the  object.  The  observ¬ 
ations  and  treatises  of  Dr.  Schoenfeld,  Emil  Hil¬ 
bert  and  others,  as  published  in  the  German  bee 
journals,  were  my  basis ;  and,  with  my  present  ex¬ 
perience,  I  dare  say  that  there  is  no  better  remedy 
known,  and  none  as  simple  or  more  effective  than 
my  modus  operandi  given  on  page  20  of  my  pamphlet  , 
“Practical  Hints,”  and  published  in  every  one  of  our 
bee  journals. 

However,  I  should  not  apply  the  same  remedy  in 
every  instance.  While  it  is  to  be  recommended  before 
the  honey  season  commences,  at  the  close  of  and  after 
the  same,  I  should  use  the  new  remedy,  I  shall  de¬ 
scribe  below,  during  the  season.  A  spraying  with  the 
atomizer  may  be  the  most  practical  in  another  in¬ 
stance,  when  the  disease  first  makes  its  appearance 
and  only  a  few  cells  are  affected.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  “when  the  disease  is  first  discovered.”  Brim¬ 
stone  is  in  many  cases  the  best  and  cheapest  remedy. 
But  brimstoning  as  well  as  any  other  treatment  re¬ 
quires  promptness  and  dispatch,  unless  one  does  not 
care  if  he  sacrifices  also  the  balance  of  his  bees,  or 
those  of  his  neighbors.  Just  as  certain  as  you  post¬ 
pone  the  finishing  of  the  job  to  the  next  day,  just  as 
certain  do  you  stand  the  chance  of  having  the  disease 
spread  by  visiting  bees. 

Last  summer  (1883)  I  made  a  discovery  which  may 
prove  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  our  afflicted 


•  5 

brethren.  Daring  the  honey  season  I  found  foul  brood 
m  a  strong  colony  with  a  valuable  queen.  Brimstone 
was  the  first  idea  that  presented  itself.  But  upon 
second  thought  I  proceeded  as  follows  :  the  combs  of 
the  second  story  were  extracted  and  rendered  into 
wax,  frames  burned  up,  and  the  bees  confined  to  the 
lower  story  or  brood  chamber.  When  I  examined 
them  again  about  two  and  one-half  weeks  afterwards, 
every  comb  was  full  of  capped  honey,  and  every  mark 
of  foul  brood  covered  up.  All  the  brood  remaining 
was  perhaps  40-50  square  inches  in  two  combs, 
wdiich  looked  healthy.  I  then  gave  the  bees  a  clean 
hive  and  ten  new  combs.  They  are  nowT  a  prosperous 
colony.  The  old  combs  were  extracted  at  once  and 
shared  the  same  fate  as  their  predecessors  of  the  up¬ 
per  story,  while  the  hive  was  disinfected  by  the  atom¬ 
izer.  It  appears  that  the  bees  had  labor  and  time 
enough  to  cleanse  their  bodies  from  the  spores  of  the 
disease,  and  honey  enough  to  bury  them  all.  Objec¬ 
tions  might  be  raised  that  a  swarm  might  issue.  So 
it  may.  But  the  danger  is  less  with  Italian  bees  than 
with  blacks.  A  removal  of  their  combs  and  hive 
seems  to  have  completed  the  cure. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  last  honey  season  (June, 
’84),  I  again  discovered  two  colonies  affected  with  foul 
brood.  Honey  came  in  pretty  lively.  These  two  col¬ 
onies  were  subjected  to  the  same  treatment  as  the 
colony  of  the  previous  season,  and  the  same  result 
was  obtained.  The  success  in  each  one  of  those  three 
cases  was  complete,  as  I  examined  them  carefully  be¬ 
fore  I  commenced  this  article.  No  salicylic  acid  had 
been  used,  excepting  that  the  bottoms  of  the  new 
hives  were  sprayed  with  the  atomizer.  My  exper¬ 
ience  with  those  three  hives  may  not  warrant  a  suc¬ 
cess  in  every  instance.  Why  should  it,  when  neither 
two  cases  nor  two  bee-keepers,  in  their  manipulations, 


6 

are  alike  ?  But  it  may  prove  a  valuable  hint  to  a 
number  of  our  friends. 

When  many  colonies  in  a  large  apiary  are  diseased, 
it  would  be  a  serious  loss  and  labor  to  brimstone  all, 
while  the  remedy  mentioned  above  would  be  in  no 
comparison  to  either.  Again,  it  would  be  folly  to  re¬ 
sort  to  it  in  any  case  when  the  colony  is  weak  in  f 
numbers.  Old  hives  with  cracks  and  crevices  should  ti 
be  burnt  up,  while  good  hives  may  be  disinfected,  to 
do  which  I  proceed  as  follows :  by  means  of  a  paint 
brush  or  a  good  atomizer  I  dampen,  with  the  disin¬ 
fectant,  the  inside,  top,  front  and  most  of  the  outside 
of  the  brood  chamber,  scrape  it  clean,  and  dampen 
again.  Not  a ’crevice  must  be  missed.  If  two  stories 
are  used  I  disinfect .  the  whole.  My  disinfectant  is 
the  same  as  that  given  on  page  24  of  “Practical  Hints’  ’ 
viz :  16  gr.  salicylic  acid,  16  gr.  soda  borax,  and  one 
ounce  of  water.  For  application  to  brood  combs  with 
larvse  this  mixture  is  too  strong;  100  per  cent,  of 
water  should  be  added. 

To  those  who  have  not  yet  applied  brimstone  but 
wish  to  do  so,  the  following  may  be  of  use :  confine 
your  bees  to  the  lower  story.  After  dark,  when  all 
are  in,  close  up  the  entrance,  take  the  cover  from  the 
brood  chamber,  place  a  brick-bat  (or  its  equivalent) 
on  the  frames,  on  which  to  set  some  tin  plate  with 
the  sulphur,  light  it,  put  second  story  on,  4nd  cover 
up.  Sulphur  fume,  being  heavier  than  air,  settles 
slowly  but  surely,  aud  in  a  few  minutes  every  bee  is  ^ 
gone. 

The  greatest  point  to  keep  in  view,  with  any  treat¬ 
ment  we  may  adopt,  is  to  put  out  of  existence  at  once 
all  and  everything  which  has  belonged  to  the  diseased 
colony  or  colonies.  Implements  used,  as  well  as  your 
hands,  should  be  disinfected  before  you  proceed  to 
handle  a  healthy  colony. 

Cincinnati,  Sept.  23rd  1884. 


Address 

CHAS.  F.  MUTH, 


S.  E.  Cor.  Freeman  ct*  Central  Arcs. 


CINCINNATI,  O 

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